We Shall Overcome

We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome someday
Deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome someday

So starts the popular anthem that inspired a generation of civil rights activists, and still lives on today.  My daughter came home from school singing the song, and I marveled.  They're teaching this in schools? Wow, things have really come a long way.  Having only recently seen the movie "Selma", one is reminded of the struggles at the heart of the civil rights movement in the '60's.   Of course struggles remain today and we only need to watch the news to see that.  The damning report on policing in Chicago, the spate of violence that has given rise to the "Black Lives Matter" movement, the intolerance which many Donald Trump supporter have unleashed on the diverse public in the light of his election victory, inflamed by the divisive rhetoric of the President-elect's campaign itself... yes, America still has a very long way to go before racial prejudice and attendant violent conflict is truly overcome.

Martin Luther King day is a good opportunity to reflect on the positive steps that America has taken towards racial equality, and to honor the memory of the man who, among others, gave his life in pursuit of that dream.  Dr. King was a flawed man, as we all are, but he was instrumental in his life and in his death, in bringing the issue of racial inequality to the consciousness of a complacent nation.

Now, as America bids a long goodbye to its first African American President, it says hello to a new and uncertain era, where key participants in the incoming administration are dogged by accusations of racism and association with openly racist organizations. Will the new administration sincerely seek to govern in the interests of all Americans?  I sincerely hope so, and we may all be about to find out.